PHOTOS and VIDEO: Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel Filming ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’

From the Cambridge News – Article 1 and Article 2

Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel recreate Cambridge 100 years ago as they film scenes for The Man Who Knew Infinity.  (Scroll down for two full articles from the Cambridge News.) (Scroll down for two videos.)

Check out the Geoff Robinson Photography website and follow Geoff Robinson on Twitter @GeoffRobinson49

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

—————————————————————————————————————

Written by GARETH MCPHERSON

Punters got their money’s worth today when they saw Hollywood stars Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel filming on the banks of the River Cam.

Slumdog Millionaire star Patel is playing a Cambridge maths genius in The Man Who Knew Infinity, which co-stars Irons.

The punters caught a glimpse of Harrow-born Patel on the Backs as the crew filmed near to Trinity College Bridge today (Monday), while touts across the city used the Cam’s Hollywood link to entice extra tourists onto the river.

River users were held back while some of the filming took place, as actors took the same risk of falling in the drink as everyone else when they got into punts.

One punter told the News: “The touts were telling people all day they would get a chance to see Hollywood stars filming so it helped them. It was ridiculously busy. Everyone had to wait for them to do their filming, which wasn’t for very long but it caused a bit of chaos.”

The film is about the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan, who died in 1920 aged just 32, but helped lay the foundations for the digital age. He was brought to Cambridge by professor G H Hardy, who is played by Irons.

Google honoured Ramanujan on the 125th anniversary of his birth by replacing its logo with a doodle on its home page. As well as the River Cam, scenes will be shot in Trinity College, where Ramanujan became the first Indian to be elected a Fellow.

The film has been described by its executive producer Joe Thomas as a meeting of Russell Crowe film A Beautiful Mind with Good Will Hunting, which starred the late Robin Williams.

The river has been a popular place for television and film producers of late. Filming for the Stephen Hawking biopic starring Eddie Redmayne took place in the Backs last autumn, while ITV viewers will see the Cam in the drama Grantchester next month.

Read more: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge/Punters-in-Cambridge-stopped-in-their-tracks-by-filming-of-The-Man-Who-Knew-Infinity-starring-Dev-Patel-and-Jeremy-Irons-20140819060223.htm#ixzz3Amdj3SGI

—————————————————————————————————————

Written by NEWS REPORTER

Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel had to be rescued from the River Cam after he lost his footing and slipped down the bank.

But it wasn’t a real emergency – the 24-year-old actor was filming scenes for his new movie, The Man Who Knew Infinity, and was plucked to safety from the cold water by co-star Jeremy Irons.

The pair spent the day in Cambridge as they rehearsed and shot scenes for the Hollywood biopic about Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Dev is playing the Indian maths maestro and Jeremy Irons, 65, will star as G H Hardy, the Cambridge professor who brings him to the UK.

Also spotted by the river was Devika Bhise, who was in The Accidental Husband starring Uma Thurman.

Much of the film is being shot in and around Trinity College, where Ramaunjan became the first Indian to be elected as a Fellow.

In the scene shot late on Monday afternoon, the two actors are seen strolling along when Ramanujan hears cheering along the river bank and runs over to see what is going on.

The crowd is watching a punting race, but in his haste to see the boats, Ramanujan slips down the steep bank and ends up in the river.

He has just enough time to hand his precious books to Hardy, before he bobs under the water. Dev was spotted spitting out some of the river water which he had swallowed during the stunt.

He was also seen earlier in the day riding a bike along the Backs as he rehearsed for another scene.

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a brilliant mathematician, who helped pave the way towards today’s digital age, but died of malnutrition and illness in 1920, aged just 32.

The film, which is being directed by Matt Brown, is based on Robert Kanigel’s biography.

Read more: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge/SLIDESHOW-Hollywood-star-Dev-Patel-rescued-from-River-Cam-in-Cambridge-by-his-The-Man-Who-Knew-Infinity-co-star-Jeremy-Irons-20140819140751.htm#ixzz3ArYYJkL8

———————————————————————

August 18, 2014
Categories: Film, Latest News and Posts . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: jeremyironsno1fan . Comments: Leave a comment

Jeremy Irons Wall Street Journal Interview

The Wall Street Journal

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
MARCH 25, 2011

Feeling Wrong for the Role, at First
By AMY CHOZICK

Read the original article here – Wall Street Journal Online

Thirty years after he played Charles Ryder in the British miniseries “Brideshead Revisited,” actor Jeremy Irons takes on another TV role that involves Catholicism, opulence and distrust: Rodrigo Borgia, the scheming patriarch and corrupt Pope Alexander VI in Showtime’s “The Borgias,” premiering April 3.

Watch a scene from Showtime’s new drama ‘The Borgias.’ The series stars Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander VI. Courtesy Showtime.

Mr. Irons, 62, is perhaps best known for film roles including Claus von Bülow in “Reversal of Fortune,” for which he won an Oscar, and Humbert Humbert in “Lolita.” He also starred in TV miniseries like the 2009 Lifetime biopic “Georgia O’Keeffe” with Joan Allen and “Elizabeth I,” with Helen Mirren.

His deep, languid voice is currently in theaters as the narrator of wildlife documentary “The Last Lions.” (He voiced the villain Scar in “The Lion King.”) In “Margin Call,” an upcoming film about the financial crisis, Mr. Irons plays an embattled Wall Street CEO based on Lehman Brothers’ Richard Fuld.

Mr. Irons was reluctant to commit to an ongoing TV series, but the nine-episode cable run and the fact that Irish director Neil Jordan (“The Crying Game”) would write and direct “The Borgias,” convinced him.

The Wall Street Journal: Why is “The Borgias” being touted as a kind of medieval version of “The Godfather”?

Mr. Irons: There’s an element in common in that Don Corleone was an Italian in America. Rodrigo is a Spaniard in Rome. Yes, that element of the manipulator and the immigrant trying to find power and how to hold onto it and influence people as the head of the family. But those parallels don’t run very deep. I think it’s sort of a marketing idea Showtime had. [Mario] Puzo wrote a novel [“The Family”] about the Borgias, of course.

You’ve said you don’t think you’re right for the role of Rodrigo. Why not?

Neil [Jordan] said “Do you want to play Rodrigo Borgia?” I got home and Googled him and I told him “Christ, you don’t want me. You need James Gandolfini.” I could think of four or five actors who would physically be right for the role. I said “I can’t play that guy.” I have an aesthetic quality that is expected from a pope, whereas this guy was a big, sweaty Spaniard with a big appetite—a lot of food, a lot of women.

So why did you change your mind?

Neil said “No, it’s all about power and how power corrupts you and how you manipulate it. No one knows what he really looked like.” So he convinced me.

Even though Rodrigo is an evil megalomaniac, there’s some humor in him. Did you bring that to it?

I think it’s all in Neil’s writing. There’s sort of a natural amusingness about the situation which one doesn’t have to play. You just do what you do and it brushes off on somebody and there’s a smile there.

Speaking of humor, why wasn’t the 1997 film version of “Lolita” you starred in funnier? The book is very funny.

That book is full of irony. I think we were so nervous about the subject when we were making it that we were walking on egg shells. We could have used a lot more irony. The Kubrick version had more irony but it missed a lot of other things.

In addition to “The Borgias,” you’ve recently done a couple of episodes of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” How did that come about?

Well, “SVU” is a different kettle of fish. I was in Budapest finishing “The Borgias” and they asked and I said I don’t know the show. They sent me an episode with Robin Williams and one with Isabelle Huppert. I said “This is good, it’s fine. It is what it is.” For an actor it feels a little like you’ve just finished reading Proust and you think “I’m going to read a Dick Francis novel and it will take me a day and be great.”

“The Tudors” did very well for Showtime but it got criticism for being soft porn in costumes. Will “The Borgias” have as much sex and nudity?

No. There are a lot of channels doing that. I think we can do better than that. This adaptation, for example, and there have been loads, doesn’t fall into the trap of writing all these stories about incest. In those days whole families used to sleep in the same bed. It’s better to get inside characters, who they are and why they do what they do than to make it sensationalist.

You seem to regularly go from film to TV to theater. Which do you prefer?

It’s just the material. They all have good things about them and they all have bad things about them. Theater is great because you can really stay in one place and work on the character in depth over a long period. It doesn’t pay as much as movies, but is often better written. The problem with TV is people are watching soccer at the same time. I’m really lucky to hop around. I’m a jobbing actor.

How is developing a character for TV different from one for film?

The huge luxury is time. A two-hour movie—and, if you’re lucky, it’s two hours—you can tell a story but it’s hard to develop the inconsistencies of a character and have time to bring all those inconsistencies together.

Are you Catholic?

My wife is. My children are. I don’t belong to clubs.

It may shock a lot of Catholics to see a Pope who behaves like Rodrigo Borgia.

Well, the medieval mind would’ve had no problem with a pope who has a mistress. Why do you expect him to be a God? He’s not a God. He’s a man, with all the weaknesses and failures. [Today] we expect our leaders to be squeaky clean and when they turn out to be normal people with normal desires, we say this person shouldn’t be our leader. Man is just doing his best.

Have you discussed a second season with Showtime?

We have a little. Neil has talked to me about some ideas. It’s hard to get the Pope out of the Vatican. I’m very grateful Showtime was hands-off when we were shooting. They left us alone. I hope that will continue because I don’t think you can make movies or TV series by committee.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page D5

Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

March 25, 2011
Categories: Latest News and Posts . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: jeremyironsno1fan . Comments: Leave a comment